Sweet Briouates & Sbiaats with rice, imagine a wrapped rice pudding

By now, you should now that Briouates mean stuffed brik sheet shaped in triangles and Sbiaats refers to the rolled shape. You are even ready to order in a Moroccan Restaurant.

This recipe reminds me of my childhood. This is a kind of dry rice pudding wrapped in a sheet of brik and fried, with the taste of home: cinnamon, orange blossom water. Addictive!

My father used to recycle the brik sheets leftover by preparing “Briouates sucrées au riz”.

Everybody loved it, especially with that crispy top and warm melting inside.

Again, this is freezer-friendly when it’s still uncooked. You can fry them or bake them (brushed with oil) to cut on fat.

If you like rice pudding, you would love this.

Ingredients
About 16 pieces minimum (depending on the size)
Prep: 1 hour - Cooking time: 6 min frying / 20 minutes Oven

• 1 cup of starchy rice
• 1 ½ cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp of butter (optional)
• 2 pinches of salt
• 2 to 3 tbsp of caster sugar (or more to taste)
• A good pinch of mastic gum powder (optional but it tastes authentic with it)
• 2 tbsps of orange blossom water
• ½ kg of brik sheets
• 1 to 2 tsp of cinnamon powder
• 2 tbsps of milk powder
• Oil for frying or brushing 

Additions

• Almonds toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)
• Raisins soaked in orange blossom water

To serve

• Powdered sugar
• Ground cinnamon

Preparation

Wash the rice until water becomes clear. Let soak in salted water for 30 min.
Bring water to a boil, add rice and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.
Add salt and milk and cook for 15 minutes, stir.

Add sugar, mastic gum powder, powdered milk, cinnamon and orange flower water.
Continue to cook for 5 min while stirring. The rice should be creamy and the liquid evaporated.

Remove from heat. Set aside in a colander to cool. Press the rice to get rid of any liquid left.

This stuffing can be kept in the fridge for 24 hours if you do not have time to shape Briouates or Sbiaats the same day.

For a fancier version of Briouates our Sbiaats au riz, you can incorporate almonds or raisins.

Folding and frying

When the rice is cool, place the sheet on the table. Cut in long rectangles.

Sbiaats/rolls au riz

Place a spoon of cooked rice at the bottom and shape into rolls or triangles.

Fold the two sides of the sheet over the stuffing in the lengthwise and flatten while paying attention to the edges (do not let the rice escape).

Giant Briouates/ Triangles au riz

Roll until it reaches the opposite end of the sheet. You may seal it with a flour paste (1 tbsp of flour mixed with 1 tbsp of water) especially if you are going to fry them. I usually don’t.

Set aside, cover with clean cloth or freeze them until you are ready to fry/bake them.

Serve with icing sugar and cinnamon.

Note: you may replace milk, some of the sugar and milk powder by using sweetened condensed milk.